1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink filling apparatus and an ink filling method employed for feeding ink to fill an ink storage chamber where a negative-pressure generation member is arranged.
2. Description of the Related Art
An example ink tank used to supply ink to an inkjet print head includes an ink storage chamber (a first chamber) where a negative-pressure generation member is arranged and an ink storage chamber (a second chamber) where a negative-pressure generation member is not arranged. The first chamber includes an ink supply port and an air communication port, and the internally provided negative-pressure generation member absorbs and holds ink to apply negative pressure to ink. The second chamber communicates only with the first chamber to substantially define closed space, in which directly ink is to be stored. For this type of ink tank, an ink filling method (reduced-pressure filling method) has been proposed whereby pressure in an ink tank is reduced for supplying ink to fill the ink tank (Japanese Patent No. 3287791).
According to the method described in Japanese Patent No. 3287791, the first chamber and the second chamber are maintained under predetermined reduced pressure, and supply of ink is begun in the order of the second chamber and the first chamber.